


Royal Titles

by kay_obsessive



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Future Fic, Healing, Magic, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-10-29 00:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20787632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/pseuds/kay_obsessive
Summary: Being a more beloved king than their father didn’t take much effort, but everyone knew Soren wasn’t up to that responsibility alone. He was sure all his people were more comfortable when Claudia was in the kingdom to advise him, just as he was, and they were all happy to call her the Queen of Katolis when she so clearly fulfilled that role.





	Royal Titles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TereziMakara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TereziMakara/gifts).

Magic was not all-powerful. It was not unlimited, and it didn’t last forever.

That old lesson jumped suddenly into Soren’s head as he closed the doors to the royal chambers behind him and started fruitlessly trying to rub feeling back into his hands.

He had picked up at least that much as a child before their father had finally given in and admitted that his son did not have the talent or interest in the area that his daughter did and let him go off to train with the Crownguard instead. He never used to understand much beyond that, but he had remembered seeing Claudia tutting over long-term spells she had to keep refreshing for her studies, remembered her exhaustion after a day spent hard at that work, and had known it must be true.

Now he still wouldn’t say he understood it much better, but he could feel the effects in his own body as clear as anything, a tingling in his fingers and toes that slowly turned to numbness as the months went on and Claudia’s magic faded. His hands fought against him now as he loosened his collar and removed his crown.

A brisk knock at the door distracted him from his thoughts. “King Soren?” came the voice of his guard.

“Yeah?” he said, turning, and then he cleared his throat and corrected his tone to something more formal. “I mean, you may enter.”

The door opened and the guard stepped inside. “The Queen has returned early,” she said. “She wishes to speak with you.”

Soren brightened, formality forgotten. He hadn’t expected his sister back for another couple of days. “Great! Send her up.”

The guard nodded and gave a brief bow on her way out, almost as an afterthought.

Claudia was not truly a queen by any traditional definition. She was a princess at most, the youngest child of one king and the younger sister of the next. But Soren trusted her and needed her, and the people liked her, probably better than they liked him. Being a more beloved king than their father didn’t take much effort, but everyone knew Soren wasn’t up to that responsibility alone. He was sure all his people were more comfortable when Claudia was in the kingdom to advise him, just as he was, and they were all happy to call her the Queen of Katolis when she so clearly fulfilled that role.

Soren smiled when the door opened again, but when Claudia entered, she entered like a storm, stomping across the room with a scowl and smacking Soren on the shoulder when she reached him.

“Ow,” he complained, covering his arm. “Gee, it’s sure good to see you, too.”

She continued to look unamused. “I saw you rubbing at your hands all through your speech this morning.”

“Oh, uh…” He grinned sheepishly. “You were there for that? I thought you just got back. What did you think? Pretty inspiring, right?”

Claudia sighed. “Well, it was better than any of your poetry.” She shook her head. “But that’s not the point. Soren, I know you only do that when your fingers have gone numb, which means you’ve felt it coming on for a while. You should have told me before I left.”

“It was barely anything then. I didn’t want to make you late.”

“Diplomacy can wait a day or two. It’s not like they would ever start any meetings without me,” she said with a dismissive wave of the hand. She reached out to tug on the hem of Soren’s shirt. “Well, let me see the scar.”

He turned around without arguing and let Claudia lift the back of his shirt. He flinched as her fingers began probing around the site of the damage from all those years ago. “Why are your hands always so cold?” he asked, and he didn’t need to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes at him.

“Don’t be such a baby,” she muttered, too focused on what she was doing for anything more.

He shrugged and let his eyes close, content listening to her quiet humming and mumbling as she slowly worked her hands over his back.

“Okay,” she said eventually, stepping back. “I don’t think we let it get too far. A standard healing spell should be enough to push it back.”

Soren frowned at her over his shoulder. “Sure you’re up to it? You’ve been travelling a lot. Don’t you need to rest?”

“Pfft, no. Basic healing is easy!” She puffed up proudly for a moment, but her expression quickly softened, and her hand came to rest against his back again. “I’ve told you – it won’t ever have to be like that first time again.”

That first time had terrified him more than anything the dragon had done. That dark, oppressive power filling the room and flooding through his body, the way it rushed from Claudia, leaving her drained and exhausted, her eyes too black, her voice echoing strangely even after the spell had ended.

“Okay,” Soren said, and Claudia smiled and gave him a gentle shove toward the bed.

She took a moment to circle the edges of the room before joining him, pulling the windows shut and locking the doors, although no one would ever enter unannounced unless it was an emergency. She never used to be so secretive with her use of dark magic, and Soren wondered if that was all she felt they were hiding.

That done, she soon had him lying face down with his back exposed and her materials spread around him. She kneeled on the bed beside him, hands resting above his hips, and she leaned in and closed her eyes as she began to speak the words.

Claudia’s magic settled heavy in the room, spreading to each corner and pressing down on the two of them, and almost immediately, the feeling surged back into Soren’s extremities, a mild tingling that briefly became a sharp stab of pain before fading back into what he had once considered normal sensation. He sighed with relief and stretched his arms out before the spell was even done, happy to feel the rub of the soft sheets beneath his fingers as he stroked them across the bed.

Then that strange weight lifted, and Claudia let herself collapse onto the pillow beside Soren, breathing hard. She lazily reached out to grab his closest outstretched hand in both of hers and gave his fingers a squeeze. “Better?” she asked.

He looked her over carefully before answering, making sure her tiredness was the expected kind, the normal effort of a normal spell. “Yeah, way better,” he said, smiling. “Thanks, Claudia.”

She sighed and pulled his hand closer to kiss the back of it. “Next time let me do it before I leave for a month, you big doof. What would Katolis do if it lost another king?”

Probably do just fine with its queen, Soren thought, and he wondered, not for the first time, what would happen if they tried to make that title official, what the people would think. They had already gotten away with so much in their lives, after all. 

He pulled his hand out of her grasp and set it gently on her hip, shifting over to press his forehead against hers.

For a little while longer, they let the doors stay locked.


End file.
